The world’s slowest and longest piece of music: John Cage’s As S As Slow As Possible was composed by John Cage, arguably the most influential American composer of the 20th century. It was originally a 20-minute piece for piano, but later expanded by some crazy group of theologians, musicologists, philosophers, composers and organists to an unbelieveable 639 years. Yes, that means the song will take 639 years from start to finish. It was first played sometime in 2003, on a church organ in Halberstadt, Germany. The first 3 notes will last for more than a year! Needless to say, it won’t be of much interest if you’d actually sit down and listen to it. In fact, for the first 17 months, all that was heard was the sound of “the organ’s bellows being inflated”. Question: But why 639? SourceThe BBC, Feb 2003
Duck Sex, Aesthetic Evolution, and the Origin of Beauty For example, if we think about a plant and the parts of the plant, trying to explain why they are the way they are, if we examine the roots we could come up with a complete description of the roots and their function and their form in terms of their physical function in the soil. They're grabbing into the substrate, they're absorbing water and minerals, they're helping the plant anchor itself. They might even be interacting with fungus and bacteria in the soil. We come up with a complete description of the plants and we have a theory for this, and that theory is natural selection. However, if we think about the flower, many parts of the flower, including its color, the shape of its petals, its fragrance, function through the perceptions of other animals. That is, the bee or the hummingbird comes along and regards the flower, asks itself, "Do I want to forage at that flower now or today?" We will never be able to nail it down exactly as we do many scientific questions.
The Holy Mountain (1973 film) La montaña sagrada (The Holy Mountain, reissued as The Sacred Mountain) is a 1973 Mexican-American avant-garde drama film directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, who also participated as an actor, composer, set designer and costume designer on the film.[1] The film was produced by Beatles manager Allen Klein of ABKCO Music and Records, after Jodorowsky scored an underground phenomenon with El Topo and the acclaim of both John Lennon and George Harrison (Lennon and Yoko Ono put up production money). It was shown at various international film festivals in 1973, including Cannes,[2] and limited screenings in New York and San Francisco. After a confrontation with the alchemist, the thief defecates into a container. The excrement is transformed into gold by the alchemist, who proclaims: "You are excrement. You can change yourself into gold". The thief is introduced to seven people who will accompany him on his journey; they are said to be the most powerful but mortal, like himself.
10 "Masked" Musicians and Why They Hide Several musicians have been known to take on an alternate persona as part of their art. David Bowie became Ziggy Stardust. Garth Brooks became Chris Gaines. Heck, Robert Zimmerman became Bob Dylan when he was trying to be Woody Guthrie. But other musicians have gone farther as to conceal their true identity by physically masking themselves whether it be with make-up or even an actual mask. Here’s a list of some of the biggest, the story of how they came to be and the reasons behind their facade. 1. 2. 3. Real Identity: Joel Thomas ZimmermanOrigin: Zimmerman’s moniker was inspired a dead mouse (surprise) that he found in his computer one day. 4. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. The Andromeda Strain The Andromeda Strain (1969), by Michael Crichton, is a techno-thriller novel documenting the efforts of a team of scientists investigating the outbreak of a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism in Arizona. The Andromeda Strain appeared in the New York Times Best Seller list, establishing Michael Crichton as a genre writer. Plot summary[edit] A military satellite returns to Earth. The scientists believe the satellite, which was intentionally designed to capture upper-atmosphere microorganisms for bio-weapon exploitation, returned with a deadly microorganism that kills by nearly instantaneous disseminated intravascular coagulation (lethal blood clotting). The man, infant, and satellite are taken to the secret underground Wildfire laboratory, a secure facility equipped with every known capacity for protection against a biological element escaping into the atmosphere, including a nuclear weapon to incinerate the facility if necessary. To halt the detonation, Dr. Main characters[edit] Dr.
The Andromeda Strain (1971) The Storm of Creativity (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life): Kyna Leski, John Maeda: 9780262029940: Amazon.com: Books PN Review Online Poetry Literary Magazine - The Freezing Coachman: some reflections on art and morality - Raymond Tallis - PN Review 96 Tolstoy tells the story of an aristocratic woman at the theatre weeping at the imaginary tragedy enacted on the stage. At the same time, outside in the cold, a real tragedy is taking place: her old and faithful coachman, awaiting her in the bitter winter night, is freezing to death. The point of the story is obvious: art does not necessarily make people better behaved, or more considerate. The dissociation between art and good behaviour angered Tolstoy and, in What is Art?, he savagely attacked what he perceived as the contemporary reduction of art to a mere amusement, recreation or opiate for the leisured classes. By these criteria, most of the art approved by his contemporaries could be dismissed: not only the works of Baudelaire, Wagner and Ibsen but much of Beethoven, Bach and Pushkin belonged to the category of bad art. It's not only critics but also artists themselves who believe in, or dream of, a morally useful art. I am unaware of any empirical data to support this claim.
Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists by Maria Popova On love, liberty, and the pursuit of silence. “Good music can act as a guide to good living,” John Cage (1912-1992) once said. Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists (public library) is a remarkable new intellectual, creative, and spiritual biography of Cage — one of the most influential composers in modern history, whose impact reaches beyond the realm of music and into art, literature, cinema, and just about every other aesthetic and conceptual expression of curiosity about the world, yet also one of history’s most misunderstood artists — by longtime art critic and practicing Buddhist Kay Larson. From his early life in California, defined by his investigations into the joy of sound, to his pivotal introduction to Zen Buddhism in Japanese Zen scholar D. Where to begin? Xenia Kashevaroff Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art I’m entirely opposed to emotions….I really am. Image courtesy of John Cage Trust / Penguin Further:
Leonardo da Vinci Italian Renaissance polymath (1452–1519) Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci[b] (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on his achievements as a painter, he has also become known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on a variety of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and palaeontology. Leonardo is widely regarded to have been a genius who epitomised the Renaissance humanist ideal, and his collective works comprise a contribution to later generations of artists matched only by that of his younger contemporary Michelangelo. Born out of wedlock to a successful notary and a lower-class woman in, or near, Vinci, he was educated in Florence by the Italian painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. Biography Early life (1452–1472) Birth and background Verrocchio's workshop Death Drawings
Director Jim Jarmusch, long known for his use of music, delivers stellar soundtrack with band Squrl CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Jim Jarmusch’s films not only feature cool music, they are also inspired by it. It all started with his 1984 breakthrough, “Stranger Than Paradise.” The film was not only partly shot in Cleveland, it also features “I Put a Spell on You,” by Cleveland-born R&B legend, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. Look beyond the location, however – for it is more than a local riff. Jarmusch’s very personal use of music has always played such a role in his films, especially this time around in “Only Lovers Left Alive.” The film -- which features guitar junkies played by Tom Hiddleston and Anton Yelchin -- rolls out a soundtrack that was constructed by Squrl. The film won the Best Soundtrack Award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. “Whereas someone like Wes Anderson creates a soundtrack out of existing music, we created music for the film,” says Jarmusch, via phone from Manhattan. The soundtrack not only compliments “Only Lovers,” it also inspired the direction of the film. And the original: